MYSTERIES OF THE MATAURA RIVER
Three to ten-day tours of the Mataura River Valley
The Mataura River is surely one of the best brown trout fisheries in the world. The river flows for over 200 kilometers, most of it fishable, and has an enormous variety of water, from jewel-like headwaters, where sight fishing is the rule, to deep blue-green pools, long translucent glades, hidden backwaters and long glides and riffles which can hold large pods of fish. This is some of the most technical fly fishing in the country. The Mataura River rewards anglers skilled at matching the hatch, reading structure and casting accurately. Novices can easily come away frustrated, and even regulars get humbled. However, in the right conditions - and with the right guide - the Mataura can yield superb angling. Gore, a little less than two hours from Dunedin or Queenstown, is a good base for exploring the Mataura River.
Moods of the Mataura
Low water conditions can sometimes occur in the antipodean spring months of October and November, before snowmelt. This brief window can offer brilliant fishing and sustained hatches with the possibility of good dry fly action. Nymphing techniques can also be very productive.
However, snowmelt, combined with rain, can raise river levels unpredictably in spring. Sometimes the Mataura River doesn’t settle down until January or February. My favourite time on the Mataura is probably the golden autumnal stretch between March and April. The lower river can fish incredibly well then. And there one has the potential for trophy fish.
The Nokomai Gorge is also spectacular in autumn, with the slanted afternoon light illuminating the yellow poplars and the trout moving upstream and keen to feed in one last binge before spawning.
Robust hatches and excellent dry-fly sight fishing
The Mataura River offers strong mayfly, caddis and midge hatches and its headwater tributaries, like the Waikaia, can offer sporadic stonefly hatches in spring. Its lush invertebrate life inspired Norman Marsh's Trout Stream Insects of New Zealand, still the finest book of its kind in our angling literature. The area inspired many of New Zealand's dry-fly patterns and techniques. The river offers the country's best match-the-hatch fishing. The upper to middle Mataura lends itself to sight fishing techniques. Below Gore, and three of its major tributaries, the Mataura's valley transitions to a more pastoral landscape. The pools are deeper and the riffles and runs hold greater numbers of trout. The structure and size and lingering surface activity test the best casting skills. With all these challenges it's easy to see why trout bums, who may fish the trophy waters of the mountains a couple of times a year, are drawn to the middle to lower Mataura, where something is always happening, and if you spook one fish, you don't have to go far to find another. The river will test you and make you a better angler.
Midsummer on the Mataura: manuka beetles, willow grubs and other terrestrials come into play. This offers the nerve-racking, rewarding experience of stalking bigger fish in backwaters. Don't forget your bloodworm, snail or damsel and dragonfly imitations for these areas.
When the poplars along the Mataura River turn yellow and the days begin to shorten and there is a nip of season’s end and mortality in the air, the afternoon hatches come like clockwork. In good years Deleatidium spinners and duns can pour across the surface like smoke, and wide runs which once seemed barren can come alive with large numbers of rising trout. Life is made for days like these.
The Mataura River is surely one of the best brown trout fisheries in the world. The river flows for over 200 kilometers, most of it fishable, and has an enormous variety of water, from jewel-like headwaters, where sight fishing is the rule, to deep blue-green pools, long translucent glades, hidden backwaters and long glides and riffles which can hold large pods of fish. This is some of the most technical fly fishing in the country. The Mataura River rewards anglers skilled at matching the hatch, reading structure and casting accurately. Novices can easily come away frustrated, and even regulars get humbled. However, in the right conditions - and with the right guide - the Mataura can yield superb angling. Gore, a little less than two hours from Dunedin or Queenstown, is a good base for exploring the Mataura River.
Moods of the Mataura
Low water conditions can sometimes occur in the antipodean spring months of October and November, before snowmelt. This brief window can offer brilliant fishing and sustained hatches with the possibility of good dry fly action. Nymphing techniques can also be very productive.
However, snowmelt, combined with rain, can raise river levels unpredictably in spring. Sometimes the Mataura River doesn’t settle down until January or February. My favourite time on the Mataura is probably the golden autumnal stretch between March and April. The lower river can fish incredibly well then. And there one has the potential for trophy fish.
The Nokomai Gorge is also spectacular in autumn, with the slanted afternoon light illuminating the yellow poplars and the trout moving upstream and keen to feed in one last binge before spawning.
Robust hatches and excellent dry-fly sight fishing
The Mataura River offers strong mayfly, caddis and midge hatches and its headwater tributaries, like the Waikaia, can offer sporadic stonefly hatches in spring. Its lush invertebrate life inspired Norman Marsh's Trout Stream Insects of New Zealand, still the finest book of its kind in our angling literature. The area inspired many of New Zealand's dry-fly patterns and techniques. The river offers the country's best match-the-hatch fishing. The upper to middle Mataura lends itself to sight fishing techniques. Below Gore, and three of its major tributaries, the Mataura's valley transitions to a more pastoral landscape. The pools are deeper and the riffles and runs hold greater numbers of trout. The structure and size and lingering surface activity test the best casting skills. With all these challenges it's easy to see why trout bums, who may fish the trophy waters of the mountains a couple of times a year, are drawn to the middle to lower Mataura, where something is always happening, and if you spook one fish, you don't have to go far to find another. The river will test you and make you a better angler.
Midsummer on the Mataura: manuka beetles, willow grubs and other terrestrials come into play. This offers the nerve-racking, rewarding experience of stalking bigger fish in backwaters. Don't forget your bloodworm, snail or damsel and dragonfly imitations for these areas.
When the poplars along the Mataura River turn yellow and the days begin to shorten and there is a nip of season’s end and mortality in the air, the afternoon hatches come like clockwork. In good years Deleatidium spinners and duns can pour across the surface like smoke, and wide runs which once seemed barren can come alive with large numbers of rising trout. Life is made for days like these.
Stu Apte, field host of ABC's "American Sportsman," called the Mataura River
"the world's greatest brown trout dry fly stream" in "Field and Stream" magazine.